Studio: international art (36.1906)

Reviews

specialty. After being laid up with sickness for more
than four years, he went to Germany. At Berlin he
worked at wood-carving, and at the same time was a
pupil at the art school. Here for the first time he
got a chance to take up modelling and drawing in
earnest. After five years in Berlin he returned to
Norway, and has since then resided in Christiania.
Here he has been the creator of the decorative
work on some of the handsomest of the new
buildings of the Norwegian capital, and has also
gained an enviable reputation by several of his
busts and statues.

BUST OF PETER DASS BY G. A. HEGGELUND

REVIEWS.

Modern Housing in Town and Country. By
James Cornes. (London : Batsford.)—The sym-
pathies of everyone must naturally be in the direc-
tion of inexpensive and artistic dwellings for the
labouring classes. A doubt may, however, arise at
times as to whether the ideal limit of ^150 as the
cost of such a cottage was not arrived at by the
Garden City authorities upon rather capricious
grounds. Still, this was the limit they imposed
upon the competitors, and it is a matter of regret
that it was not more closely and conscientiously
adhered to. In Mr. Comes’ book, the designers

themselves are responsible for the figures quoted,
and it militates strongly against the usefulness and
practical benefit of the publication when one is
asked to consider as possible prices, Mr. Blow’s
and Mr. Houton’s ^\d. per foot cube. A more
grotesque price still is that of Mr. Wells, who
quotes the estimated cost per foot cube at 2 \d.
But apart from figures so wide of the mark as
these, there is no doubt that few of the cottages
shown could be built so as to show an effective
return of 5 per cent, upon a cost of ^150, which
was the sum, we believe, originally mentioned by
Mr. St. Loe Strachey in the discussion which has,
as its outcome, led to the exhibition of cheap
cottages at the Garden City. Builders’ profit
sometimes, not always, is allowed for • archi-
tects’ commission, seldom; water supply, which
in many cases must be well-sinking, is rarely men-
tioned ; fencing and path-making are usually left
as matters to be added by way of extras. How
few, again, of the designers have had in mind that
every ^5 spent in repairs, the distempering to
rough-cast exteriors, painting, &c., means an
additional capitalised cost of ^100? We have in
our present notice confined ourselves principally
to the consideration of the Garden City cottages
as being the most interesting portion of Mr Cornes’
book. Few of the designs call for comment, and
in many cases it could hardly be complimentary.
Those who have succeeded in designing a properly
arranged cottage of decent appearance, have wisely
abandoned the exiguous ^150 limit.

Remmiscenccs of George Frederick Watts. By
Mrs. Russell Barrington. (London : George
Allen.) 2 is. net.-—Amongst great English artists
of the nineteenth century none has made a
deeper impression on his own age, or is likely to
exercise a more lasting influence over posterity,
than the prophet-painter, George Frederick Watts,
whose aim, as he himself said, “was not to de-
light and amuse, but to urge on to higher things
and nobler thoughts.” To be brought into true
touch with him was to enter into an ideal atmo-
sphere ; and amongst the few to whom this great
privilege was accorded none knew better how to
value it than did Mrs. Russell Barrington, who has just
enriched the world with a unique volume of Remi-
niscences that admits the reader to the threshold
of what was indeed a holy place. To the
threshold only, however, for one of the distinctive
qualities of the book is reserve ; and there is in it
not a single line that could wound the feelings of
the most sensitive. Mrs. Barrington combines in
an unusual degree the literary and artistic gift.

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